Fragile Hope
by Slightly Sinister Sinestra
Summary: Neo lies in bed, thinking about Steller and the life she had. Please R&R?


Disclaimer: I still don't own it!

OK, this is one big long, rant at the goverment and war my sister and I came up with while watching our cousin play with a pirate ship. Well, sort off. It's pretty much Neo's thoughts on the world and his three pilots while he watches Athrun sleep. And no, it's not yaoi!

A broken doll. A toy that had been played with too much. That was what the boy reminded him off. So much like his own children after a battle. Soldiers...why were they all so young? Little children taken, trained, corrupted and tossed back into the world to face horrors that _adult_ eyes weren't ready for. And then, when they were broken, of no further use to their people, they were tossed aside and destroyed. And yet, who was he to criticise? He'd played that game as well. He'd hurt three children who'd had a time surviving their children. Psychotic killers in battle, and yet they'd retained a puppy like innocence outside of it. Had the boy lying across from him have managed to hang onto some form of innocence? Of his childhood? How old was the boy? Eighteen? Not much older than his three.

But his three had known nothing else. Born to fight. Thaught to fight sooner than they were taught to talk. After all, in a battle, the only voice that mattered was your superior's. What was the point of knowing how to talk properly when your only purpose in life was too live and die when your goverment told you? No. Not live. Exist. You couldn't call that a life. Not when your only purpose was to die on command. But then, wasn't that the purpose of any soldier?

Perhaps. Yet it couldn't be denied that these children had been used badly, worse then any adult could be used. Childhood, any chance of childhood, stolen. Taken. Irretrievable. And for what? So they could opperate on a level with the coordinators? How could that be so? How could you say these children were on a level with anyone, when they were treated as if they were less then animals. The coordinators used the abilities given to them by genetics. The children of science. How could anyone think to equal that by taking children and destroying them? The dream that had been the coordinators was poisoned, and now even the dream of childhood was too follow. All for the sake of an empty war. All for the sake of this _damned_ empty war.

When would it end? With the end of the coordinators? With the death of all children? Or sooner? Maybe with the death of hope? And hope was dying fast. They lived without the childlike belief that their was always something better. Without the smile a child that age should wear and the way they should believe that war and hate were going to end. With the destruction of childhood they were leading to the death of hope. And without hope, they were heading into an endless war.

The door opened noiselessly.He raised his head slowly. The boy moved slightly and groaned, before settling back and sleeping again. Damages done wouldn't release him so quickly. The hurts of war never did. The young redhead they'd taken in with the boy stepped hesitantly into the room. The boy opened his eyes and began to sit up, only to find himself collapsing back with a gasp. Neo grimaced and the girl squeaked, running up to the beds. He watched green eyes meet gray. So. The broken, abandoned doll had found someone. Just like one of his children had, for the short time she'd had. And that red eyed boy had had handed her back to him, merely to keep her safe. That boy, that soldier, hadn't trusted himself to protect her. Instead, he'd put his flawed faith in a man who in the end had failed them. Had broken a promise.

He watched the girl flutter over the vunerable young soldier. Over the damaged child. He hoped that maybe these two could find what Steller hadn't. What she'd never had the chance to find. Safety. Life. Hope. Not from a failed old man like him. From someone who truely cared. Who, maybe, loved them. Such a fragile hope, in this unending war. But, perhaps, the only hope that endured.

_Keep him safe little one. He needs you._

Well, what y'all think? I'm not really fond of Steller and co, I just find the concept of what was done to her terrible. I mean, how could you put a _child_ through that? I just find it horrible. I nearly cried at the sight of all those bodies in that factory. Anyway, what ya think of the story?


End file.
